Millions of vaccine doses are now threatening to expire in Austria – Austria
In view of the next sluggish vaccination progress, millions of vaccine doses are threatening to expire in the months. what happens now
Even when unopened and properly stored, vaccines have a limited shelf life. “At the end of June Austria will have at least 16 million doses of vaccine in stock, which must be vaccinated in six to nine months, otherwise they will be lost,” explains Markus Bachmann from Doctors Without Borders. Therefore, they must be passed on in good time so that they do not become unusable.
Donations to Bangladesh and Iran
To date, around 35.5 million vaccine doses have been delivered to Austria, and we have donated around 5.5 million of these to Bangladesh or Iran before the end of the expiration date (as of April 5). “However, these donations are not generous, but born out of necessity,” Bachmann puts into perspective in an interview with “Cafe Puls”, because: “The image that poor countries would be given these cans ‘for free’ is deceptive. Actually, that’s exactly what it is Opposite.”
Small quantities with a short expiry date that can be used very quickly would tie up an enormous amount of resources, according to the expert, “and these are precisely the resources that are particularly scarce in the lowest-income countries”.
Compared to other EU countries of the same size, Austria lags far behind when it comes to donations. For example, Denmark has donated twice as much vaccine as we have. Perhaps it is because the logistical effort for this takes a few weeks or because the approval of the vaccine manufacturer is required for the transfer.
Austria overflows vaccination needs
It is clear, however, that Austria is running out of time: “The federal states have received three million more doses of vaccine than they have been able to vaccinate up to now. With the current sluggish progress in vaccination, that would be a range of three years, but the duration of the vaccines is only six to nine months.” , warn Bachmann, and calculates: “At the end of June we have at least 16 million vaccine doses in stock in Austria, which have to be vaccinated in six to nine months, otherwise they will be lost.”